Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, was arrested on the 3rd (local time) by Delta Force, the U.S. Army's elite special operations unit, CBS reported, citing U.S. government officials.
Reuters also reported that a U.S. government official said President Maduro was arrested by a U.S. elite special operations unit.
Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that the United States successfully carried out a large-scale operation against President Maduro and arrested the president and his wife, transporting them outside Venezuela.
Delta Force, along with the Navy SEALs, famed for the operation to kill Osama bin Laden, is considered a core asset of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).
Its official name is "1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta," and it carries out a wide range of special missions, including counterterrorism and hostage rescue as well as direct action and special reconnaissance. It is often deployed on dangerous covert missions under orders from the highest levels of the U.S. government.
It has conducted operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Somalia and Libya, and is also known as the unit that played a leading role in the covert operation in 2019 that killed former Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
In 2014, in eastern Syria, the stronghold of IS forces, it suffered a setback due to fierce resistance from IS during an operation to rescue American hostages.
It was founded in 1977, modeled after the British Special Air Service (SAS) following a series of major terrorist incidents in the 1970s.
The selection process for operatives is strict. Typically, candidates with more than five years of military service pass rigorous physical, intellectual and psychological tests, then complete six months of specialized training and a final evaluation before being selected as operatives.